Graham Christensen (right) addresses visitors at the opening of his Rural Recollections exhibition at Mangaweka's Yellow Church Gallery. Photo / M Cathels
Graham Christensen (right) addresses visitors at the opening of his Rural Recollections exhibition at Mangaweka's Yellow Church Gallery. Photo / M Cathels
Artist Graham Christensen's Rural Recollections – Revisited exhibition opened at Mangaweka's Yellow Church Gallery over Labour weekend, after his original exhibition was cut short by Covid-19.
Christensen remained busy during lockdown, however, and the rebooted exhibition now features freshly created works.
A former stock agent from Palmerston North, Christensen saidhe began painting "a bit later than the average" person, when he and his wife were living on the Gold Coast.
"It was only about eight years ago, bearing in mind that I'm 72," Christensen said.
"I took up painting with the encouragement of my wife, and before that I didn't have the slightest interest in it. I'd thought I could learn how to fly fish or do wood carving, but once I started painting I got obsessed by it."
Upon retiring, the couple returned to New Zealand and bought some land between Palmerston North and Ashhurst so Christensen could "pretend to be a farmer", but his newfound love of painting continued unabated.
'Shall we grab these' will be for sale at Yellow Church until the end of December. Photo / Supplied
"Painting wasn't something I expected to do, but I love it. I had some very good tutors in Australia, and when I moved home I just thought 'I need to get really into this', because I so enjoyed it.
The new exhibition would be his third at Yellow Brick, Christensen said.
"The owner, Richard Aslett, has been incredibly supportive of my work and every two years he runs a competition called Fakes and Forgeries, which I've had some pieces in.
"From that I've somehow managed to have three of my own exhibitions at Yellow Church and another one in Feilding. It's really through meeting Richard that it's grown into me being excited about what I do."
Christensen said it was "a real buzz to start with a blank canvas and conjure something" that people responded to and wanted to buy.
"Sometimes it astounds me that people like what I paint, it's exciting and very encouraging. When people appreciate what you do, it makes you want to do it again."
The artworks in Rural Recollections features shearers, sheep, farm dogs, rolling landscapes, as well as a retired farmer enjoying a drink.
"As a kid I lived on farms in and around the Manawatu. You roll in the mud and fall in the creek, but you also help your old man out at lambing time, and with docking and shearing. All of those things influence your life.
'Retired at last', one of the paintings on display as part of 'Rural Recollections' at Yellow Church Gallery in Mangaweka. Photo / Supplied
"I went on to university and worked on agriculture research farms down in Canterbury, and even on Mana Island of all places, which at the time was a sheep research centre."
Memories of watching "huge mobs of cattle" being driven by road to the Feilding Sale yards also inspired his work, Christensen said.
"Back in the old days drovers on cattle farms would ride horses, then it was motorbikes, then quad bikes, and now it's side-by-sides and drones. That's why I wanted to paint a stockman on a horse, because those kinds of things are disappearing."
Rural Recollections – Revisited is open for viewing on weekends and most midweek days at the Yellow Church Gallery, SH1, Mangaweka. Viewings are also available by appointment. Call Richard Aslett on 027 526 66 12.
